Eastbourne skipper 'excited' for winner takes all match with East Grinstead

The two sides are the only unbeaten teams in Group A2 of the August Cup and the winner looks likely to progress to whatever finals days the Sussex Cricket League organise.

Eastbourne’s third win of the competition came at the expense of Mayfield with Scott Lenham (4-13) and Oli Carter (55). And Smith is hoping this form will carry on tomorrow, but he knows it will not be easy.

Smith said: “It does look like the winner of this next game will progress.

“We’re all very excited. It really good that in such a shortened season, that we can have a game with something genuinely riding on it. It’ll be great practice for our young side.

“They’ve [East Grinstead] been a strong side for a number of years now, with plenty of good players. They racked up a massive score last Saturday so will be looking to try and stop that if we can.”

The game is at the Saffrons but Smith is not putting too much on home advantage.

He said: “Home advantage is nice but I think we’d be equally as suited to playing up at their place. I played a Sunday game up there a couple of weeks back and the pitch was turning square.”

On team selection, Smith added: “We haven’t picked the side yet, we were missing a few last week and there’s a couple away this Saturday so there’ll be some decisions to be made.”

Mayfield started well against Eastbourne on Saturday after being inserted by Smith, but it was 15-year-old Lenham who changed the game.

Smith said: “They actually got off to a really good start in the first 10 overs and our spinners and slower balls had to bowl very well to drag the situation back.

“150 could have also been a fairly tricky chase had we lost early wickets, but our top order did a great job.

“Scott’s spell with the ball was a real game changer. They were in a reasonable position to push on with wickets in hand, but then to lose three wickets in one over really halted them in their tracks.

“Oli batted very well. It was actually a very selfless knock because he could have knocked the ball around for 15 overs and got a not out but he tried to finish to game as quickly as he could to help push our net run rate up, something that could be very important moving forward.”

East Grinstead go into the game after hammering Haywards Heath by 153 runs after piling up 332-6 from their 40 overs.